The Bay Area struck a hard bargain with its tech workers. Rent was astronomical. Taxes were high. Your neighbors didn’t like you. If you lived in San Francisco, you might have commuted an hour south to your job at Apple or Google or Facebook. Or if your office was in the city, maybe it was in a neighborhood with too much street crime, open drug use and $5 coffees. But it was worth it. Living in the epicenter of a boom that was changing the world was what mattered. The city gave its workers a choice of interesting jobs and a chance at the brass ring.
You start to feel stupid : Tech workers can t leave SF fast enough
Nellie Bowles, New York Times
Jan. 16, 2021
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From left: Laura Thompson, Gillian Morris, the founder of the travel app Hitlist who recently fled San Francisco, and Wren Dougherty, who all share a home, in Ocean Park, San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Dec. 15, 2020. As a tech era draws to an end, more workers and companies are packing up. What comes next? (Gabriella N. Baez/The New York Times)Gabriella N. Bez/NYT
SAN FRANCISCO The Bay Area struck a hard bargain with its tech workers.
Rent was astronomical. Taxes were high. Your neighbors didn’t like you. If you lived in San Francisco, you might have commuted an hour south to your job at Apple or Google or Facebook. Or if your office was in the city, maybe it was in a neighborhood with too much street crime, open drug use and $5 coffees.
The migration from the Bay Area appears real. Residential rents in San Francisco are down 27% from a year ago, and the office vacancy rate has spiked to 16.7%, a number not seen in a decade.